ARSENE WENGER wasn’t in the mood to say so last night. But if he doesn’t sort out his defence soon, Arsenal’s season will end like the last seven – without a trophy.

The Frenchman put on a brave face after Fulham came ever so close to turning them over yesterday. Frankly, he’s kidding himself.

His Gunners very nearly shot themselves in the foot with kamikaze defending that better sides than Martin Jol’s would have swooped on.

Wenger said he saw lots of positives in Arsenal’s performance. The rest of us saw frightening gaps at the back.

Mark Schwarzer’s injury-time penalty save was merely justice being seen to be done after facing a spot-kick that should never have been given and a Fulham performance that deserved at least a point.

Jol said afterwards: “We played some fantastic stuff, and I thought we dominated them at times. I can’t remember creating so many chances at Arsenal. It was so disappointing to be 3-2 up here and not win. We could have scored two or three more.”

It was so disappointing to be 3-2 up here and not win. We could have scored two or three more

Fulham boss Martin Jol

Wenger saw it differently, but he will almost certainly be the more concerned of the two managers this morning. “It is not good to concede three goals at home, and we don’t look too good at corners. But there are a lot of positives in our team and we will just have to keep working on our defending,” he said.

You can say that again. Olivier Giroud got his head to an 11th-minute corner from Theo Walcott that should never have reached him. And before you could say Mark Schwarzer, the Fulham keeper was picking the ball out of the net.

He didn’t have much chance 11 minutes later, either, when Lukas Podolski put the Gunners two up.

Again, Fulham’s defenders were day dreaming to allow Mikel Arteta the space to cross. The German couldn’t miss from a couple of yards out.

But it really was the day for dozy defenders as Arsenal’s went to sleep six minutes later.

Bryan Ruiz’s corner was routine enough, but Dimitar Berbatov was inexplicably allowed time and space to head Fulham back into a game that looked like running away from them.

Berbatov capped Fulham’s spirited fightback five minutes before the break. He latched on to a through ball from Sascha Reither and delivering a perfect cross for sub Alex Kacaniklic to head home with a little help from the unprotected Vito Mannone.

No wonder Wenger thumped the floor in frustration. For 45 minutes there really had been no case for either defence.

He will probably have been a darned sight angrier after the break, though.

What Arteta thought he was doing in his own box, only he knows. Suffice to say he allowed Ruiz to dispossess him and could hardly complain about the 67th-minute penalty that followed after he bundled the Costa Rican over.

Berbatov completed his double with as sweet a spot kick as you will see.

Credit to Arsenal – and Giroud in particular – though. They were level within two minutes when the Frenchman headed his second of the afternoon after first hitting the post.

He deserved a third soon afterwards, but this time Schwarzer spectacularly denied him – just as he did at the death when he saved Arteta’s injury-time spot kick which Arsenal were given because Reither was adjudged to have used his hand to halt Andrey Arshavin’s cross.